Centre for Literature

exploring the art of language

What is our story? Where have we come from? Where are we now? Where are we going? What stories are we creating? What stories could we be creating?

The next chapters are about how we change the way we see and do things, how we improve our ability to communicate and create connections with one another, and how we make creative community enterprise around our individual, community, and common human interests possible.

Creating a better world for ourselves lies in creating opportunities for people to explore, experience, learn, contribute, and create their story.

What we know about literacy

42% of Canadian adults lack basic literacy skills

80% of people who end up in jail are functionally illiterate

30% of Ontario’s Grade 3 children fail the standard reading exam.

Thousands of public schools across Canada are in severe need of basic reading resources

In 1970 Canadian schools budgeted to buy three books per child per year.

Today school budgets allow for less than one third of a book per child.

Most Canadian children have limited access to contemporary reading materials.

Only 13% of Canadian public schools have a librarian

The world has changed. The basic level of literacy we need has gone up.

Other countries are doing a lot better than Canada does

Our standard of living is directly related to our standard of literacy

What we know about reading

What human beings value most are pleasure, utility, and creativity. Reading contributes to what we value, – the pleasure of the experience, – a contribution to our learning, – and ideas to excite our imagination and creativity.

What we know about literature

Stories are how we learn. Stories are how we connect with one another around common experiences, common ideas, and common interests. Stories are how we contribute to changing the way we see things, think about things, and do things.

Stories carry ideas. We remember stories. Stories create word of mouth. We retell stories. Stories are how we express ourselves and how we contribute what we know to others. Stories are our history and our heritage. Stories are our culture. Stories create our culture. Stories create community. Our cultural and human development lies in our stories.

What we know about the art of language

Words communicate who we are, how we feel, and what we think. Words guide our attitude and our behaviour. Words are how we communicate what we see and how we see things and what we do and how we do things. Words create our reality and our possibilities. Words are how others come to know us and how we come to know them. The art of language is the art of creating our life. We choose our life when we choose our words.